Osmond Portifoy
Osmond Portifoy is a supporting character and the true main antagonist of the TV pilot movie for the NBC series, Night Gallery, created by Rod Serling. He was played by the late Ossie Davis. TELEVISION PILOT Osmond Portifoy was first the butler of Mr. Hendricks, who had suffered a stroke a while back and does not get along with his spoiled and evil nephew, Jeremy Evans (Roddy McDowall) at all. After Jeremy killed Mr. Hendricks, he inherets all of his possessions through a will that states if her sister isn't alive, his belongings would go to her soul survivor. Something that enraged Mr. Hendricks, because of how much he hated Jeremy. After Mr. Hendricks' death, Portifoy sets to retire from being the family butler, but Jeremy, being the new owner of the property, confirms to portifoy that he will be paid $80 dollars a month, according to the will. Portifoy isn't too keen on this, but offers to stay with is permission. As Jeremy begins to notice that Mr. Hendricks' painting of the cemetery next to the house is moving, Portifoy seems to be calm about it and doesn't believe Jeremy, telling him that it's all his imagination. This enrages Jeremy, causing him to slap a tray of hot tea off of Portifoy's hands and burning him. Jeremy's arrogant nature makes Portifoy seemingly quit his job and stay at a hotel room for his exit, leaving him alone with the painting. As the painting shows Mr. Hendricks' ghost coming towards the front door, Jeremy hears the door pounding rapidly and begins to lose his mind till he dies, falling down the stairs. This turns out that Portifoy actually hadn't left the house as he checks Jeremy's corpse lying on the floor. He casually calls the hospital to tell the doctor that Jeremy died breaking his neck as he fell down the stairs. Through theft, Portifoy is seen being the new "owner" of the Hendricks' estate and it turns out that this whole time, Portifoy and the artist, Gibbons had actually conspired to drive Jeremy insane and possibly have him murdered. Portifoy actually hired Gibbons replicate Mr. Hendricks' painting 15 times to illustrate the different positions of Mr. Hendricks to make it look like his painting was moving. Portifoy pays Gibbons $8,000 dollars for his task and tells him he has a talent of imitating other people's style. Portifoy also tells Gibbons that according to Mr. Hendricks' will, if there were no remaining family members six months after his demise, his belongings would go to him personally. Portifoy even says to Gibbons that if Jeremy hadn't broken his neck, he would have slowly gone out of his mind and once he would be committed, Portifoy would still be currently where he is, just different means. After Gibbons leaves the house with his reward, Portifoy discovers that Mr. Hendricks' painting is actually moving this time as Jeremy's ghost rises out of his grave, according to the painting and slowly opens the door, killing Portifoy as we hear him scream in agony. TRIVIA As Jeremy is brutally honest, Portifoy is a sneaky sociopath who has used unphysical murder and theft to get what he wants. Prior to Mr. Hendricks' death, Portifoy and the corrupt illustrator, Gibbons plotted their scheme in advance to dispose of Jeremy from the estate. It's possible that Mr. Hendricks or any of the family members could have been evil themselves, too in their own ways.